CATV networks and various other networks are used to transmit cable television, digital telephone, broadband Internet signals and/or other information signals between one or more service providers and a plurality of subscribers, typically over coaxial cables and/or fiber optic cables. Most conventional networks of this type comprise hybrid fiber-coaxial networks in which fiber optic cables are primarily used to carry signals from the headend facilities of the service provider to various distribution points, while coaxial cable may be used, for example, to carry the signals into neighborhoods and to individual homes, apartment complexes, hotels, businesses, schools, government facilities and other subscriber premises (i.e., the physical locations of the subscribers). In some cases, the fiber optic cables may extend into residential neighborhoods and other areas where subscribers are located, and may even extend all the way to individual subscriber premises. Such all-fiber optic networks are referred to as fiber-to-the-home (“FTTH”) networks.
In many of these networks the service provider is a CATV service provider that may have exclusive rights to offer cable television services in a particular geographic area. In such networks, the service provider may broadcast a broad variety of CATV channels to the various subscriber premises over the CATV network, and may offer other services such as, for example, broadband Internet, on-demand television and digital Voice-over-Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) telephone services. Thus, in many cases, a subscriber may receive CATV service, a broadband Internet connection, and VoIP telephone service all through a single connection.
Two-way communications are typically supported between the service provider and individual subscriber premises. “Downstream” information signals are transmitted from the network headend facilities to the individual subscriber premises, and “upstream” information signals are transmitted from the individual subscriber premises to the network headend facilities. In a typical CATV network in the United States today, the downstream communications are transmitted over the 52-1002 MHz frequency band, while the upstream communications are transmitted over the 5-42 MHz frequency band. Other frequency bands are used in other countries.
FIG. 1 is a simplified, schematic block diagram of a conventional CATV network. As shown in FIG. 1, the CATV network 10 includes headend facilities 20 where signals (e.g., broadcast and other signals) from various sources, such as transmissions from satellites, microwave, fiber optic and other sources, are gathered and processed for transmission over the CATV network 10. These signals are distributed via a main or “optical trunk” network 25 to a plurality of remote hubs 30. The signals may be further distributed from each remote hub 30 to a plurality of optical nodes 40, where the signals are typically amplified. Each optical node 40 may feed a plurality of trunk sections 50. Conversion from optical signals to radio frequency (“RF”) signals often occurs in the trunk sections 50. Each trunk section 50 may feed a plurality of feeder sections 60. The communications lines 65 running from each feeder section 60 are routed through neighborhoods and the like. Note that in FIG. 1 only two remote hubs 30, optical nodes 40, trunk sections 50 and feeder sections 60 are pictured to simplify the drawing, and downstream components (described below) are depicted off only one of these hubs, nodes or sections for the same reason.
As is further shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of tap units 70 are typically provided in series along each communications line 65. The tap units 70 divide the communications lines 65 into a plurality of segments 75, which are typically implemented as physical cable segments 75. The tap units 70 are typically located outside, along a residential street, usually within an enclosure such as a pedestal. Each tap unit 70 typically has an input port that connects to a first cable segment 75, an output port that connects to a second cable segment 75, and one or more RF tap ports. Each tap unit 70 splits the signal that is received at its input port, allowing some of the received signal energy to pass through the tap unit 70 to the output port (and thus the tap unit provides a communications path between the first and second cable segments 75), while the remainder of the received signal energy is split further and provided to the RF tap ports of the tap unit 70. So-called “drop” cables 85, such as, for example, coaxial drop cables, may run between each tap port of a tap unit 70 and a point-of-entry device 90 at each respective subscriber premises 80. A power divider network (not shown) that has a plurality of output ports is typically connected to the point-of-entry device 90 in each subscriber premises 80. The output ports of each such power divider network are connected via additional coaxial cables to wall outlets throughout the subscriber premises 80. Individual devices such as televisions, set-top boxes, cable modems and the like are connected to these wall outlets via coaxial jumper cables.
While tap units 70 and coaxial drop cables 85 have conventionally been used to connect each subscriber premises to one of the communication lines 65 of the CATV network 10, the use of a wireless drop has been proposed in the context of fiber-to-the home CATV networks. In particular, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2015/0125146 suggests such a wireless drop fiber to the home network. Additionally, service providers now may provide broadband Ethernet to subscriber premises without broadcast cable television service, and different network architectures may be suitable for such networks.